To improve the chances of dancing with slim Latinas outside BsAs, you should start by only going to your preferred tango events where all the women are under 40 years old and there are 2-3 of them to 1 man

Seriously though, you're absolutely entitled to try to get a dance with whoever you want according to whatever personal criteria you impose and I fully support your right to do so, but I don't understand why you describe the layout of a room/venue in hostile terms? Followers are not opponents or enemies. None of us are there (I believe!) to 'win', 'compete' or 'fight'...are we?!

Member

Absolutely right. In BsAs you should search for closed ball room venues and last century architecture. You should browse the fleemarkets for rare shellacs. You should ask old portenas what their parents told them about the golden age. That´s what you can find in BsAs.

For the price of a ticket to Buenos Aires I can get 20 private lessons locally.
I even didn't count the lodging - probably, another 20 private lessons.

A Latina told me that the lesson price with a good maestro in Buenos Aires increases exponentially if he thinks that you are not an Argentinian.
Here is another reason to go to a lesson locally when the same maestro visits your city.

Member

To improve the chances of dancing with slim Latinas outside BsAs, you should start by only going to your preferred tango events where all the women are under 40 years old and there are 2-3 of them to 1 man

Seriously though, you're absolutely entitled to try to get a dance with whoever you want according to whatever personal criteria you impose and I fully support your right to do so, but I don't understand why you describe the layout of a room/venue in hostile terms? Followers are not opponents or enemies. None of us are there (I believe!) to 'win', 'compete' or 'fight'...are we?!

When there are 10 women sitting together in a row, it's difficult to approach them.
If a woman wants to be approached, she has to take a chair away and sit lonely or to stand in a place where dancers mingle. So, you should check if the layout allows mingling.

That's one of the main reasons why a man approaches one woman or another.
Also, there is nothing wrong when a woman approached a man.

Active Member

This milonga in Seoul has had the most crowded seating i have ever seen. They used only cabeceo but I do not know how exactly it was managed. This was the milonga i gave up not only because of the difficulties with the cabeceo but mostly because the pista was totally filled up for every tanda.

Well-Known Member

But there is one more aspect to consider that an encuentro organizer told me:
If followers are forced to find a leader to register - the quality and condition of that leaders might have not been their top critieria.

Member

This milonga in Seoul has had the most crowded seating i have ever seen. They used only cabeceo but I do not know how exactly it was managed. This was the milonga i gave up not only because of the difficulties with the cabeceo but mostly because the pista was totally filled up for every tanda.

Moderator

For me, my one evening at this place, before the new management, will always be a high point of my dancing AT. A similar high point in my swing dancing would have been if I had been fortunate enough (and interested early enough) to meet or take lessons from Frankie Manning or Dean Collins.

For some of us, AT is not just a dance. It's about a culture and the place that (with all the qualifications we might add) gave birth to the dance and the customs that go along with it. A trip to BA is one way to test yourself on how well you've learned that culture.

Well-Known Member

I wonder where one can take a private lesson for around $50 in this part of a hemisphere. It has been a long while since I had seen that price. The lowest for a package of 20 lessons with a competent instructor is nowadays $1500, and it's considered a damping/special discount price.
Parallel universe, indeed.

Member

I wonder where one can take a private lesson for around $50 in this part of a hemisphere. It has been a long while since I had seen that price. The lowest for a package of 20 lessons with a competent instructor is nowadays $1500, and it's considered a damping/special discount price.
Parallel universe, indeed.

I can get a 20-lesson package for $1,200. But it's just for me, for a specific week day and time. "Do not mention it to anyone!", of course.
It's not with Chicho, but it doesn't matter.

I imagine it would be even easier with a 40-lesson package.
Even with your prices 40 lessons will be $3,000 or less.
You can spend that much by flying and staying in Buenos Aires for 3 weeks. Or you can have a private lesson every week for 40 weeks.

Member

For some of us, AT is not just a dance. It's about a culture and the place that (with all the qualifications we might add) gave birth to the dance and the customs that go along with it. A trip to BA is one way to test yourself on how well you've learned that culture.

Well-Known Member

I seriously don't know how one could manage to give lessons on that budget. If I get out of the house for less than $40 I lose money right on the spot. If I have to work on top of that, let's say, for a minimum wage, which is ridiculous in case of a professional dance instructor, I still won't make anything because the studio rent costs more.
Perhaps, one teaches in the privacy of their own home, but it's still not free. There is rent/mortgage, cleaning, wear and tear, etc.
There may be reasons an instructor would give free lessons or even subsidize someone's dance education, but that's another kind of story.

Member

I seriously don't know how one could manage to give lessons on that budget. If I get out of the house for less than $40 I lose money right on the spot. If I have to work on top of that, let's say, for a minimum wage, which is ridiculous in case of a professional dance instructor, I still won't make anything because the studio rent costs more.

A lot of people work for $100 per day after taxes.
If a professional instructor has 3 students in a row in a day, she can earn $200-300 that day. That's not very bad at all.

There is a lot of competition among teachers here. There are teachers who have no dancing degrees or vast experience, but they still teach and attract students.
It's not uncommon to go to a group class with only 5 students: 5 x $15 isn't much different from what I pay.

Moderator

If it has this kind of a female line of attack, it's very difficult to approach a woman. If one refuses, all of them will see it and they will refuse in solidarity.
Cabeseos, of course, don't work as the women don't look around or are very far away.
Essentially, they are waiting for a friend or a very courageous man.

Your experiences are different from mine. The cabeceo works well in BsAs (and quite a few other places), if people are interested in dancing with you. In other places, people do mingle and ask each other (verbally) to dance. Basically, when in Rome, do as the Romans do.

A question: What is keeping you from being the courageous man, that you say some of them are waiting for?

Member

I said that I approach them sometimes.
But if there is a lonely lady, then she is a much easier target. I can come closer and try to initiate a contact. If she looks away, I can quickly move to a different lady.

If there is a line of ladies, I have to be more selective. I usually select a less experienced one who sits all time and almost cries.